


Climbing Trees Is Bad For You

by sn0wfl4k3s



Series: Pynch Week 2016 [1]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, M/M, adam is a dryad in a very loose sense of the term, kind of, mythology AU, tree!Adam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-07 11:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7712791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sn0wfl4k3s/pseuds/sn0wfl4k3s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pynch Week Day 1: Mythology AU/Alternate First Meeting AU</p><p>Ronan sprains his wrist, but luckily a tree is there to save the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Climbing Trees Is Bad For You

**Author's Note:**

> #tbt to when ronan was cute

One of Ronan’s favourite parts of the Barns, besides all of them, was the dense forest that began at the bottom of the cows’ grazing field and ended, as far as Ronan knew, where the world did. For a young thirteen year old boy such as himself, these woods were full of endless mystery and adventure. In the fall, he played in the leaves; in the winter, he searched for hibernating squirrels; in the spring, he got hay fever.

And now, in the summer, he climbed trees. Ronan was very particular in the trees he climbed. There were enough in the forest that he could go his whole life never having climbed the same tree twice, and he intended not to. He was going for a record. Find a good tree, handhold, foothold, handhold, branch, (take a second to bask in how good you are at this), handhold-

“What are you doing?” said a cool voice, right against Ronan’s ear. He jumped so hard he fell the eight feet to the ground, attempting to catch himself on his hands and failing. His wrist bent in a way it was definitely not supposed to. 

Ronan rolled on to his back and squeezed his eyes shut, cradling his wrist and letting loose every curse word Declan denied teaching him. When he opened his eyes, a boy’s face swam above him. The boy seemed about Ronan’s age, with brown eyes and brown hair and brown freckles on brown skin. He was beautiful. The curses on Ronan’s lips died.

“I’m so sorry,” the beautiful boy said, pretty eyebrows drawing together in concern. His voice was nice: slow, and the way he dragged out some sounds made his sentence seem almost lyrical. “Are you okay? Oh, your wrist. I can help with that.”

Ronan had forgotten how to speak. He watched as the boy lifted a long, lean arm and gently wrapped his hand (beautiful fingers) around Ronan’s swollen wrist. Ronan could not help but be incredibly aware of the contact.

“It’s still sprained, but this should help with the pain,” the boy said, and Ronan realised he was right. His wrist now felt numb and pleasantly numb. “I’m Adam, by the way.”

“Ronan,’ Ronan managed to say. “Where did you come from?”

Adam gestured behind him. “The tree.”

“What?”

“I was in the tree.”

“No you weren’t. I saw it. It was empty.”

Adam shook his head. “Nope. I was in there.”

“Were not.”

“Was too.”

“Were not.”

“Watch,” Adam said, letting go of Ronan’s wrist (Ronan regretted everything), standing up, and brushing off his weird tunic thing. Ronan watched as Adam walked over to the tree, leaned against it, and… melted. Melted into the tree. His skin became bark, his arms became branches, and the rest of him vanished into the trunk of the tree. A second later, his head poked out, a smug grin on his lips. “See? Was too.”

Ronan reconsidered the boy before him. He took in the odd clothes, the slightly pointed ears, the green tint to his skin where there ought to have been pink. “Huh,” he said.

Adam snorted and kneeled back beside him. “Do you have to go back to your family?”

“Oh yeah!” Ronan shouted, rocketing to a sitting position. This was a mistake. Pain shot through his wrist, and he almost toppled back over.

“Stupid,” Adam admonished, wrapping his hand back around Ronan’s wrist to alleviate some of the pain. “Here, get up. I’ll walk you back.”

“I thought that was supposed to make it feel better.”

Adam flushed. “Yeah, I haven’t… quite got the hang of it yet. I could just leave you, y’know.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I mean, we can’t all be as great at everything as me.”

Adam grinned, elbowing Ronan in the ribs. “Shut up, dumbass. Come on.’

And that was how Ronan ended up walking back through the forest practically hand in hand with a tree person. He and Adam had a good time on the walk back, jumping over streams and fallen logs, trying to make each other trip, and Ronan almost didn’t notice that they had reached the edge of the forest. It was Adam that brought them to a halt.

“I can’t go past this point so…” he trailed off, not looking Ronan in the eye.

“Oh. Why not?”

“If I leave the forest I’ll die.”

“Oh. That’s a good reason then.” Ronan looked at the boy before him. “Then… I’ll come back and visit you some time. If you want.”

Adam smiled, a delicate green blush rising to his cheeks. “Yeah. I’d like that a lot. See you around, Ronan.”

“See you.”

The entire walk home, Ronan barely felt his sprained wrist, focussing instead on green blushes, shy smiles, and long fingers on his skin.

**Author's Note:**

> so this was my first trc fanfic! hope it doesnt show lol


End file.
